I read your op-ed with considerable interest. I’m a retired engineer whose work experience included several years in satellite design. As I read your article, my impression was that you do not understand the so-called “satellite temperature” data developed by Roy Spencer and John Christy of UAH. Allow me to provide some information.

The MSU series of instruments and the later AMSU measure microwave intensity from orbit, that is, from the top of the atmosphere. Theoretical work has been developed to support the claim that these measurements for each channel of the instrument correspond to a “bulk” temperature profile thru the atmosphere. When Spencer and Christy presented their first effort in 1990 (1), they worked with data from channel 2, which they still produce, (now labeled TMT for Temperature, Middle Troposphere).

However, in 1992 (2), they presented results which showed that the channel 2 data is distorted by emissions from the stratosphere, which has exhibited a well known cooling trend. For this reason, they proposed a modification of the channel 2 data, (now labeled TLT for Temperature, Lower Troposphere) which they claimed removed the distortion from the stratosphere in the MSU data.
The TLT computation begins with the 11 scan positions which the MSU produces for each swath across the ground track below. There are 11 positions, labeled 1 thru 11, with #6 being straight down (nadir). There are also 2 more positions at the ends of each swath, one viewing deep space and the other viewing a heated target which is monitored for temperature with two accurate resistance thermometers. The TLT algorithm actually includes only 4 of the 11 positions, throwing out 5, 6, and 7 and using 1, 2, 10 and 11 as a correction for the data from 3, 4, 8 and 9. Thus, the resulting TLT data can not be said to “ provide “complete global coverage”. Also, the data can only be provided between 82.5N and 82.5S, due to the inclination of the orbit. Spencer and Christy calculate a gridded data product including higher latitudes, which they calculate by interpolation, artificially extending beyond the range of available data.

The TLT algorithm is based on theoretical calculations, using a model of the microwave emission and adsorption at each pressure altitude added together from the surface to satellite altitude. Spencer and Christy have never publicly revealed the method they used to create their algorithm, which is rather curious, as the assumptions used may be critical. Some of the microwave energy in channel 2 comes from the Earth’s surface and the TLT computation adds more surface effects, thus the TLT is not a pure measure of temperature. As the MSU instruments are retired, newer AMSU instruments are replacing them and Spencer and Christy have created a different algorithm in order to include the AMSU data into the TLT. They claim that they are simulating the TLT from the MSU, again without specifying the method used to do so. They have continued this lack of transparency with the latest TLT (version 6), which Spencer briefly described on his blog, but which has not been published after peer review.

The important point to remember from all of this is that the TMT is not useful for measuring climate change and the TLT is highly theoretical. In spite of being aware of these limits, Spencer and Christy have presented the TMT in testimony to Congress, showing a comparison between the TMT and the results of computer simulations, both globally and over the tropics. What they don’t mention is that to produce their graphic, they have simulated the orbital altitude TMT measurements from the GCM results (3), using CMIP5 data from the KNMI Climate Explorer website (4). The model results from KNMI are monthly averages and include only temperatures at 3 pressure levels, the surface, 500mb and 200mb pressure height, as I understand it. The method to translate those monthly values into simulated TMT results remains an unpublished mystery.

Spencer and Christy’s claim (which you repeated ) that the satellite data does not exhibit as much warming as that from the surface is not surprising. The 13 satellites’ orbits take the instruments across each latitude at the same time of day with each orbit, the equator crossing times being nearly constant. The surface temperature record is usually an average of the temperature at a location, computed as an average of the daily low and high temperatures. This average will not be the same as the temperature measured at a fixed times of the day, say 10AM and 10PM, which the satellite might see over mid-latitudes. And, at the highest latitudes, each pass provides measurements half way between the equatorial crossing times, 3AM at one pole and 3PM at the opposite pole. At polar latitudes, the orbits overlap, giving multiple measurements during the day, which are summed into a grid box, while in mid latitudes, there are missed areas between the ground swaths, which exacerbates the lack of coverage in the TLT.

Twelve years ago, my curiosity led me to perform an analysis of the UAH TLT data, the results of which I published in a peer reviewed journal in 2003 (5). I found an apparent discrepancy at high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, which I suggested might be due to the effects of sea-ice. After my report, the group at Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) decided to exclude any coverage to the south of latitude 70S from their version of the TLT, their reasoning being that the high elevations over the Antarctic was distorting the measurements. RSS also excludes data from other regions with high elevations, such as the Andes and the Himalayas. I later performed an analysis using the TMT product, finding that these data did not exhibit the anomalous characteristic which I noticed in the TLT. These results have not been published, but can be made available on request. It would be of interest to see the result of a similar analysis using the latest version 6 of the TLT, though I am not likely to perform such an effort.

In conclusion, I think these facts provide very good reasons to discount the “satellite temperature” data when assessing the climate change resulting from mankind’s activities adding CO2 to the atmosphere.

Tony usually quotes the RSS numbers, which your article clearly praises as being more reliable than UAH.

As to the rest, thank you for the informative comment.
The coverage of the satellites, while not complete, is still enormously greater than that of thermometers. Off the top of my head, I don’t know the angular width of the equatorial gaps in coverage, but I now it’s neither large, nor permanent. Today’s gaps do not align with tomorrow’s gaps. And at the highest latitudes, there’s basically zero coverage from any source. I believe Vostok is the only permanent weather station above 82.5 degrees north or south. There may be more, but certainly less than 10.
The reason for the 11 positions on the satellites is to cancel out the distortion caused by looking through the stratosphere. By measuring the signal through multiple angles, you get knowable differences in the lengths of stratospheric and tropospheric air columns. With those different measurements, you can calculate the relative strengths of the signals from each level of atmosphere, and eliminate the levels you’re not measuring. It’s not perfect, but it’s statistically valid with enough data points. I don’t know why angles 3-9 are thrown out, but I suspect it’s because they found that data to be redundant, and saw little or no change when it was included. Angles 1 and 11 should provide the overwhelming bulk of the difference.

Yes, Ted, but even using Steven’s cherry-picked start year, the trend is increasing in the troposphere. Using the entire RSS record, the trend is quite steep. But the real here is you now have the knowledge you need to accept that satellite temperature measurement is not more accurate than the surface measurement systems.

The start date was chosen by calculating how far back the line can be drawn, without any meaningful slope. That’s exactly the method you’d expect from someone telling you how long the temperature has been stable. There’s no other mathematically correct way to determine that number. Incidentally, I’m sure Gail could link you to numerous studies showing that, if we’d had satellites that far back, a zero trend line could probably be drawn through to some time in the middle ages, and to some time around 10,000 years ago. Looking at the longer term record, we’re currently in a shockingly stable period. Some might even call the current stability “unprecedented.”https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Vostok_Petit_data.svg

Still didn’t work. One last try:http://www.w3.org/2000/svg
But don’t take my inability to properly embed a graph as proof of ignorance in basic statistical analysis. You can see the point I’m making by clicking on the first link. The last 10,000 years are the most stable in the last 400,000. Very comfortably so, when compared to previous interglacials.

Martin, your post contains two gross inaccuracies. First, UAH ws verified by radiosondes up the entire west coast of North America to insure no latitudinal biases. See Christy’s APS testimony to Koonin’s committee. Second, UAH has published their processing algorithm details. For v.6, Spencer did a description of the changes on his blog, and noted that a formal paper on them was in the peer review process.
Please research more before making or repeating easily verified falsehoods. Some of us fact check rather rigorously since so many climate untruths have been spread.

Let’s see: Only 30% coverage of the earth, where it is hopelessly biased by UHI effect, is preferable to nearly complete global coverage. And “RSS decided to exclude any coverage to the south of latitude 70S” – which just happens to be where temperature has actually been gradually decreasing and sea ice growing.
Boggles the mind.. or does it.

UAH is cross-checked by RSS and both are crosschecked by balloon sondes, all of which agree, the surface sets, like GISS and NOAA, etc … their raw data shows cooling (non-warming), then when they are done mangling it, voila’ ever-increasing warming.

Your argument would be rational absent the triple cross-check and differing methods (RSS and UAH are not identical processes), but with these, it is fair to say, that the satellite and sonde data are much more accurate than the surface sets.

Spencer and Christy calculate a gridded data product including higher latitudes, which they calculate by interpolation, artificially extending beyond the range of available data.

Our correspondent, Swanson R E, seems unable to distinguish between ‘interpolation’ and ‘extrapolation’. Interpolation (filling in between measurements) is usually much more reliable than extrapolation (extending beyond a measurement). It is extrapolation that causes climate models to be such a joke.

I found an apparent discrepancy at high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, which I suggested might be due to the effects of sea-ice.

The crux of the letter gets no explanation at all. You’d have thought with all that preamble we might be heading for an explanation but no, a bald assertion of ‘a possible influence’, totally unquantified.

Right – so you’re citing a LETTER to a politician to make what point? UAH data sucks? Really? The UAH measurements and processes have been through the peer review process, the letter … not so much. Plus there is that inconvenient fact that RSS data actually is pretty close to UAH data which is pretty close to the radiosonde data, unlike the tinkered-with “data” generated by gavin and co.

Personally, I’m just happy to see something of actual substance from Martin. Not a LOT of substance, but certainly better than the usual, “Stop lying Steven.” I don’t know how to respond to, “Wrong graph.” But this one contained things that can be intelligently debated. I consider that a step in the right direction, and I hope it continues.

I have thrown tons of graphs and studies at him showing that the ground measurements are spotty and error prone over the course of weeks and he completely ignores them.

In 1999 psychologist David Dunning and his graduate student Justin Kruger published a paper in which they describe what has come to be known (appropriately) as the Dunning-Kruger effect. In a recent article discussing his now famous paper, Dunning summarizes the effect as:

“…incompetent people do not recognize—scratch that, cannot recognize—just how incompetent they are,”

He further explains:

“What’s curious is that, in many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious. Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.”

For the areas occupied by the Romans it was pretty close to zero or actually sinking! “..the pivot point is rather abrupt; Scotland is still rising due to the rebound effect which is correspondingly sinking England 2 millimetres into the North Sea each year.”

A NASA model of current surface elevation change due to post-glacial rebound and the reloading of sea basins with water. Canada, Northern Europe, and Antarctica are all currently rebounding at a rate of a few millimetres per year. More water in the oceans as a result of ice sheet melting is slowly depressing sea basins. Satellites are used to observe differences over time. http://basementgeographer.com/glacial-isostatic-adjustment/

….backshore deposits along the tectonically stable south-eastern Vietnamese coast document Holocene sea level changes…..reconstructed for the last 8000 years….The rates of sea-level rise decreased sharply after the rapid early Holocene rise and stabilized at a rate of 4.5 mm/year between 8.0 and 6.9 ka. Southeast Vietnam beachrocks reveal that the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand slightly above + 1.4 m was reached between 6.7 and 5.0 ka, with a peak value close to + 1.5 m around 6.0 ka….

Translation the sea level was up to 1.5 meters higher than today in a tectonically stable area ~5000 years ago to 2000 years ago. Tectonically stable area refers to areas devoid of deformation such as all processes which modify the external form of the crust. For example unidirectional vertical movements, plate tectonics and also the rise and fall of the solid earth surface, especially in coastal areas, caused by external factors such as climate change (gio-isotasy, hydro-isotasy)

Unconsolidated carbonate sands and cobbles on Kapapa Island, windward Oahu, are 1.4-2.8 (+ or – 0.25) m above present mean sea level (msl)…we interpret the deposit to be a fossil beach or shoreline representing a highstand of relative sea level during middle to late Holocene time. Calibrated radiocarbon dates of coral and mollusc samples, and a consideration of the effect of wave energy setup, indicate that paleo-msl was at least 1.6 (+ or – 0.45) m above present msl prior to 3889-3665 cal. yr B.P, possibly as early as 5532-5294 cal. yr B.P., and lasted until at least 2239-1940 cal. yr B.P
jsedres(DOT)geoscienceworld.org/content/66/3/632.abstract

This study shows a sea level highstand ~1.6 meter above the present level from ~5500 years ago to 2000 years ago.

STUDY #3Late Quaternary highstand deposits of the southern Arabian Gulf: a record of sea-level and climate change

Abstract
…..It has therefore been necessary to infer the ages of these sediments by a comparison of their stratigraphy and elevation with deposits known from other parts of the world. We regard this approach as valid because the southern Gulf coastline lacks evidence for significant widespread neotectonic uplift,…….
…..Widespread evidence exists for a Holocene sea level higher than at present in the southern Arabian Gulf, indicating that it peaked at 1–2 m above present level, c. 5.5 ka bp……. sp(DOT)lyellcollection.org/content/195/1/371.refs

This study shows a sea level highstand ~1 to 2 meters above the present level about ~5500 years ago.

The first part discusses drilling in several locations and analyzing samples. They mention dating prior to that was guesses. “…. A drilling campaign done in the domain permitted the sampling of material for 14C datings, and the obtained data confirmed some previously assumed ages. The sequence of events, that originated the Holocene deposits, has been also reconstructed through drilling and 14C dating of the collected peat and shell samples…”

In the body of the text is this:

THE HOLOCENE DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEM
Partially abutted against the Pleistocene barrier island/lagoonal system III, there is the Holocene depositional system. This unit is attributable to the Santos Transgression of Suguio & Martin (1978), along the State of São Paulo coastline, or to the Last Transgression of Bittencourt et al. (1979) along the State of Bahia coastline, being similar to the barrier island/lagoonal system IV of Villwock et al. (1986), along the State of Rio Grande do Sul coastline.

This system is related to the post-glacial transgressive episode whose culmination stage was attained about 5.1 ky BP, when a barrier island alignment was formed parallel to the shoreline, while drainage net was drowned. The subsequent regressive episode promoted the barrier island progradation following the lagoonal basin silting.

The paleoshorelines limited by ancient cliffs carved within Pleistocene terraces, presently representing the inner limit of the Holocene terrace, shows that this sea-level reached about 4m above the present one. Several terraces situated in different altitudes, and truncation of past morphological features nowadays observed on Holocene deposits, as well as along present lagoonal margins suggest that small scale sea-level oscillations occurred during the last 5 ky….
(wwwDOT)scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0001-37652000000200011&script=sci_arttext

This study shows a sea level highstand ~ 4 meters above the present level about ~5000 years ago. With sea level oscillating since then. Not only has the sea levels have dropped since the Holocene Optimum the evidence shows that “warmer paleotemperatures were favourable for great proliferation of mollusks in the area”
Santa Catarina Brazil is at latitude 27.2500°S and is tectonically stable.

STUDY #5Holocene sea-level change and ice-sheet history in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica

A new Holocene sea-level record from the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, has been obtained by dating the lacustrine–marine and marine–lacustrine transitions that occur in sediment cores from lakes which were formerly connected to the sea. From an elevation of ∼7.5 m 8000 yr ago, relative sea-level rose to a maximum ∼9 m above present sea-level 6200 yr ago. Since then, sea-level has fallen monotonically until the present….
(wwwDOT)sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X97002045

The above is a RELATIVE sea level. The area is not tectonically stable because the area has isostatic uplift in response to deglaciation from the Wisconsin Ice Age. The same applies to the following study.

Abstract
Extensive systems of wave generated beach ridges along the North Greenland coasts show that these areas once saw seasonally open water. In addition to beach ridges, large amounts of striated boulders in and on the marine sediments from the same period also indicate that the ocean was open enough for ice bergs to drift along the shore and drop their loads. Presently the North Greenland coastline is permanently beleaguered by pack ice, and ice bergs are very rare and locked up in the sea ice. Predictions of the rapidly decreasing sea ice in the Arctic Ocean generally point to this area as the last to become ice free in summer. We therefore suggest that the occurrence of wave generated shores and abundant ice berg dropped boulders indicate that the Arctic Ocean was nearly free of sea ice in the summer at the time when they were formed. The beach ridges occur as isostatically raised “staircases”, and C14-dated curves for relative sea level change show that they were formed in the Early Holocene. A large set of samples of molluscs from beach ridges and marine sediments were collected in the summer of 2007, and are presently being dated to give a precise dating of the ice free interval. Preliminary results indicate that it fell within the interval from c. 8.5 to c. 6 ka – being progressively shorter from south to north. We therefore conclude that for a period in the Early Holocene, probably for a millenium or more, the Arctic Ocean was free of sea ice at least for shorter periods in the summer….

…. Solar energy reached a summer maximum (9% higher than at present) ~11 ka ago and has been decreasing since then, primarily in response to the precession of the equinoxes. The extra energy elevated early Holocene summer temperatures throughout the Arctic 1-3°C above 20th century averages, enough to completely melt many small glaciers throughout the Arctic, although the Greenland Ice Sheet was only slightly smaller than at present. Early Holocene summer sea ice limits were substantially smaller than their 20th century average, and the flow of Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean was substantially greater. As summer solar energy decreased in the second half of the Holocene, glaciers re-established or advanced, sea ice expanded…

STUDY #9A new approach for reconstructing glacier variability based on lake sediments recording input from more than one glacier January 2012

…. A multi-proxy numerical analysis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish a glacier component in the ~ 8000-yr-long record, based on distinct changes in grain size, geochemistry, and magnetic composition…. This signal is …independently tested through a mineral magnetic provenance analysis of catchment samples. Minimum glacier input is indicated between 6700–5700 cal yr BP, probably reflecting a situation when most glaciers in the catchment had melted away, whereas the highest glacier activity [growth] is observed around 600 and 200 cal yr BP. During the local Neoglacial interval (~ 4200 cal yr BP until present), five individual periods of significantly reduced glacier extent are identified at ~ 3400, 3000–2700, 2100–2000, 1700–1500, and ~ 900 cal yr BP….
(wwwDOT)sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033589411001256

The highest glacier growth started 600 years ago prior to that most glaciers had melted away.

For the last 40-50 years strong observational facts indicate virtually stable sea level conditions. The Earth’s rate of rotation records an [average] acceleration from 1972 to 2012, contradicting all claims of a rapid global sea level rise, and instead suggests stable, to slightly falling, sea levels.

…………………

Have they corrected for the 18.6-yearly Luna Nodal cycle? Linear trend lines on sinusoidal curves are very time dependent.
The Dutch who are the most concerned about actual sea level rise have found the cycle.

Local Relative Sea Level
To determine the relevance of the nodal cycle at the Dutch coast, a spectral analysis was carried out on the yearly means of six main tidal gauges for the period 1890–2008. The data were corrected for atmospheric pressure variation using an inverse barometer correction. The spectral density shows a clear peak at the 18.6 -year period (Figure 1). The multiple linear regression yields a sea-level rise (b1) of 0.19 +/- 0.015 cm y-1 (95%), an amplitude (A) of 1.2 +/- 0.92 cm, and a phase of -1.16 (with 1970 as 0), resulting in a peak in February 2005 (Figure 2). No significant acceleration (inclusion of b2) was found.
CONCLUSIONS
Coastal management requires estimates of the rate of sealevel rise. The trends found locally for the Dutch coast are the same as have been found in the past 50 years (Deltacommissie, 1960; Dillingh et al., 1993). Even though including the nodal cycle made it more likely that the high-level scenarios would become apparent in the observations, no acceleration in the rate of sea-level rise was found. The higher, recent rise (van den Hurk et al., 2007) coincides with the up phase of the nodal cycle. For the period 2005 through 2011, the Dutch mean sea-level is expected to drop because the lunar cycle is in the down phase. This shows the importance of including the 18.6-year cycle in regional sea-level estimates. Not doing so on a regional or local scale for decadal length projections leads to inaccuracies.
(wwwDOT)bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-11-00169.1

“Our analyses do not indicate acceleration in sea level in U.S. tide gauge records during the 20th century. Instead, for each time period we consider, the records show small decelerations that are consistent with a number of earlier studies of worldwide-gauge records. The decelerations that we obtain are opposite in sign and one to two orders of magnitude less than the +0.07 to +0.28 mm/y2 accelerations that are required to reach sea levels predicted for 2100 by Vermeer and Rahmsdorf (2009), Jevrejeva, Moore, and Grinsted (2010), and Grinsted, Moore, and Jevrejeva (2010). Bindoff et al. (2007) note an increase in worldwide temperature from 1906 to 2005 of 0.74uC. It is essential that investigations continue to address why this worldwide-temperature increase has NOT produced acceleration of global sea level over the past 100 years, and indeed why global sea level has possibly decelerated for at least the last 80 years.”

The oceanic temperature record at best shows warming just in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean basins, the remainder showing no significant increases. Furthermore, the amount of warming detected is at most of the order of a few hundredths of a degree and probably well within the overall margin of error.

Although I support your overall position on the so-called Global Warming, it is not a convincing argument to other than us skeptics to show the satellite data as “the” data of global temperature changes. The warmists always use the GISS/NOAA data – and now more so with the new adjustments that (conveniently for COP21) get rid of the “pause”.

I don’t know how to get around the problem of skeptics and warmists using different data on the same subject. Sea level rise is another one: the warmists show it accelerating whereas the skeptics show same-old-same-old. Comparison to modeled temperature rise has the same disconnect between “us” and “them”. We show only 3 of 114 model runs are similar to observation, and, in fact, Hansen’s “C” Scenario of zero additional CO2 rise to be the closest model to observation, and they say, no, “B” if not closer to “A”, the complete disaster!

Satellite data, radiosondes and tidal guages get zero traction in the MSM landscape. Net global ice, net Antarctic ice gain, get no daylight either. Greenland sheds less ice now than in 1912 (hello, Titanic!) and has an internal ice gain, but is drowning the world in meltwater. Meanwhile, the small amount of water released by glaciers at source is considered enough to end the flow of the mighty Ganges (and others, including my hometown Bow Riverr in Calgary) downstream, where rate and volume ratios tell you most water comes from recycled rain and snow.

The public is not buying the hype exactly. But the hype still gets press, money and excitement. I suspect the only ending to this charade is through death and retirement, with the upcoming looking to create their own peer-value through individualized conclusions (rather than parrotting the statements of their mentors). With Strong gone, Hansen and Suzuki in retirement, we could be on the cusp of reasonableness, but it is probably another generation away. The Gore “disciples” would have to renounce him – look what happened to Jung when he disagreed with Freud. Not likely to happen.

The biggest or most basic question I have with the warmist camp is their continued use of the 114 model projections 27 years after they were first unveiled. In all this time, should not the more extreme of them have been discontinued? No one has ever explained to me how you go from “here” to “there” by 2100, when sealevels and temperatures have to accelerate their climb multiple times OUTSIDE of CO2 rise projections and proposed sensitivities. If ANY of the models are essentially correct, we have to get from where we are to where they fear we will be within the parameters of the models. But almost all of them don’t do it. So the only way to get to disaster in 2100 is to say that the models are inadequate.

I say again: the only way to get to disaster from today is to say the current IPCC models are inadequate. They have the basic science calibrated incorrectly. They have basic assumptions about how the world works, including what is the “natural variability” wrong. Sea-levels and temps will jump …. because there is a series of scientific relationships that are not configured into our models that will do it. But we can’t revise the projections, because we don’t know what those cause-and-effect relationships are.

Global Warming, Obama claims, COP21 are bizarre beyond comprehension. It’s lke a man who assures you he has $100 in his pocket when he isn’t wearing any pants.

“I don’t know how to get around the problem of skeptics and warmists using different data on the same subject.”
…………

At this point with the deaths of thousands in the UK and elsewhere DIRECTLY attributable to the FRAUD at NOAA, the MET and BOM, I favor trials for accessory to murder.

I have had it with dishonesty and deliberate fraud that infects government and academia and I would love to have a real Nuremberg style trial with Hansen, Schmidt, Soros, Gore and the rest up on charges.

Barring that I will have to settle for the major decline in temperature and the severe weather that accompanies it looming on the horizon.

Actually, having no children or close relatives of a young age, I am rooting for a descent into glaciation at this point. It really is time to cleanse the human gene pool of the dead weight.

The measurements show that Arctic sea ice has turned the corner, and is climbing again. ..exactly as one would predict from the position of the AMO.

It is still WAY ABOVE the zero summer ice from most of the first 3/4 of the Holocene.

There is NO ACCELERATION in sea level change. Once adjusted for the sinking of its reference point (which the alarmista fraudsters neglect to do even though they know about it), even the satellite data shows a constant, 1.4mm/year.

And as shown. This year Greenland has gained mass at a rate faster than the 1990-2013 average.

Affected by a cold front moving from the Black Sea, eastern province of Erzurum saw snowfall as of late Wednesday, paralyzing daily life on Thursday. A number of villages were closed to traffic and temperatures dropped to -2 degree. People had difficulty in reaching the city center from nearby provinces….

… Each year around 300 Bewick’s swans migrate 2,500 miles from Arctic Russia to escape the approaching cold weather which follows closely behind them.

They flock to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Slimbridge, Glos, where their arrival has been recorded since 1963.

The first bird arrived on Sunday – a full 25 days earlier than last year and the earliest date on record.

It coincided with the first frosts of the autumn in the area and experts say its early return could be a sign of a long, hard winter ahead. …

Almost 300 “snow patches” remained in the Highland mountains in 2014
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-33581400

Glacier-like hazards found on Ben Nevis in 2014
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-28885119

August 27, 2015 saw a massive Increase in Scottish Snow Patches

Comment by Tonyb (the UK history nut) at Bishophill
This comes from an article I wrote four years ago;

‘….This decline in the climate is reinforced by this account from 1610 when John Taylor, talking of the hills around him in Deeside Scotland, remarked that “the oldest men alive never saw but snow on the top of divers of these hills both in summer as in winter.”
tonyb http://www.bishop-hill.net/contributor/28563341

30 September 2015 BBCNews Snow patch clings on in Glen Coe

“This is the latest that snow has ever survived on Meall a’Bhuiridh since skiing began here in 1956. “But some of our old timers here, guys in their 90s, say snow has never lasted this long.”
He said: “The winter of 2013-14 was a record for snow depths with tows buried for many months, yet even then snow only persisted on the mountain until 28 September.

“The winter of 2014-15 was a reasonably average winter but unseasonably cold summer temperatures have meant that the snow has lasted even longer this year.
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-34400982

…………………………………ELSEWHERE
…………………………………
We won’t even talk about Russia which has been getting plastered.

Sioux Falls sets snowfall record for 2nd time in the month of November. By the end of November snowfall was already more than half entire 2014-15 season total.

Yesterday, the South Korean Meteorological Administration on Thursday issued a heavy snow warning for Seoul and some other cities, where temperatures dropped below freezing. — (wwwDOT)sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/03/image-of-asia-taking-a-photo-in-snow-covered-seoul/

Last Wednesday there was 44cm of fresh powder snow on the ground – the deepest snow to cover Sapporo Japan since 1953. The ski resort of Niseko just south of Sapporo received 24cm on Tuesday. Significantly more is expected in the next two or three days. — (wwwDOT)aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/japan-sapporo-surprised-sudden-snow-151126094756184.html

Italy captured the world’s one day snow fall record twice this last winter in March TWICE.
240cm (7.84 ft) in Pescocostanzo
256cm (8.34 ft) of snow Capracotta

A total of 10 feet (3 meters) of snow fell on Passolanciano, Majella burying the chairlifts (6 Mar 2015 )

Not far away, the Greek islands in the Mediterranean were buried under 6½ ft (2 m) of snow in January.

In Norway they were forced to remove excessive snow from ski slopes – “During the last two days we’ve got more snow than we had in the last two years together,” said Vegar Sårheim. “I had never believed we would experience this.”

FROM 2014:
(1) 2014 had the greatest snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere since data collection began in 1968 — (Rutgers University Global Snow Lab).
.
The Great Lakes obliterated all records for springtime ice last year, and this year.

Affected by a cold front moving from the Black Sea, eastern province of Erzurum saw snowfall as of late Wednesday, paralyzing daily life on Thursday. A number of villages were closed to traffic and temperatures dropped to -2 degree. People had difficulty in reaching the city center from nearby provinces….

… Each year around 300 Bewick’s swans migrate 2,500 miles from Arctic Russia to escape the approaching cold weather which follows closely behind them.

They flock to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Slimbridge, Glos, where their arrival has been recorded since 1963.

The first bird arrived on Sunday – a full 25 days earlier than last year and the earliest date on record.

It coincided with the first frosts of the autumn in the area and experts say its early return could be a sign of a long, hard winter ahead. …

Almost 300 “snow patches” remained in the Highland mountains in 2014
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-33581400

Glacier-like hazards found on Ben Nevis in 2014
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-28885119

August 27, 2015 saw a massive Increase in Scottish Snow Patches

Comment by Tonyb (the UK history nut) at Bishophill
This comes from an article I wrote four years ago;

‘….This decline in the climate is reinforced by this account from 1610 when John Taylor, talking of the hills around him in Deeside Scotland, remarked that “the oldest men alive never saw but snow on the top of divers of these hills both in summer as in winter.”
tonyb http://www.bishop-hill.net/contributor/28563341

30 September 2015 BBCNews Snow patch clings on in Glen Coe

“This is the latest that snow has ever survived on Meall a’Bhuiridh since skiing began here in 1956. “But some of our old timers here, guys in their 90s, say snow has never lasted this long.”
He said: “The winter of 2013-14 was a record for snow depths with tows buried for many months, yet even then snow only persisted on the mountain until 28 September.

“The winter of 2014-15 was a reasonably average winter but unseasonably cold summer temperatures have meant that the snow has lasted even longer this year.
(wwwDOT)bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-34400982

Yesterday, the South Korean Meteorological Administration on Thursday issued a heavy snow warning for Seoul and some other cities, where temperatures dropped below freezing. — (wwwDOT)sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/03/image-of-asia-taking-a-photo-in-snow-covered-seoul/

Last Wednesday there was 44cm of fresh powder snow on the ground – the deepest snow to cover Sapporo Japan since 1953. The ski resort of Niseko just south of Sapporo received 24cm on Tuesday. Significantly more is expected in the next two or three days. — (wwwDOT)aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/japan-sapporo-surprised-sudden-snow-151126094756184.html

Italy captured the world’s one day snow fall record twice this last winter in March TWICE.
240cm (7.84 ft) in Pescocostanzo
256cm (8.34 ft) of snow Capracotta

A total of 10 feet (3 meters) of snow fell on Passolanciano, Majella burying the chairlifts (6 Mar 2015 )

Not far away, the Greek islands in the Mediterranean were buried under 6½ ft (2 m) of snow in January.

In Norway they were forced to remove excessive snow from ski slopes – “During the last two days we’ve got more snow than we had in the last two years together,” said Vegar Sårheim. “I had never believed we would experience this.”

FROM 2014:
(1) 2014 had the greatest snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere since data collection began in 1968 — (Rutgers University Global Snow Lab).
.
The Great Lakes obliterated all records for springtime ice last year, and this year.

In a recent article discussing his now famous paper, Dunning summarizes the effect as:

“…incompetent people do not recognize—scratch that, cannot recognize—just how incompetent they are,”

He further explains:

“What’s curious is that, in many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious. Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.”

Anything that does not fit into his PC universe he completely ignores.

Can you link us to a similarly pristine temperature record in different part of the world, against which the satellite data could be compared? Specifically, the data collection methods need to be rigorous enough for all parties to agree that adjustments are not needed. To my knowledge, the USCRN data set is currently the only one to meet that standard. But if you know of another, we’d all be interested.

Wizzum, you must remember that you are conversing with one of those who believes that all data and definitions are open to wild interpretation, as long as and especially when that interpretation supports “the cause”.

the very first point.. because I’m prettys ure you won’t even bother to follow the link..

1. The Arctic is located at the northernmost part of our planet. Scientists usually define the Arctic as the area above the ‘Arctic Circle’ — an imaginary line that circles around the top of the globe.